You are now entering Ad Space, a realm of commercials, brought before us so we might examine how they work, and discuss why we both love and hate them so. So it is written …

A couple years ago, I did an Ad Space on the trailer for Machete. There I talked about how the trailer existed before the movie did, having been created as one many fake movie trailers included in the double-feature Grindhouse, all of them loving homages to the kind of exploitation flicks you’d see at a cheapo movie theater in the 70’s.

If you want to see some of those other trailers, like Hobo with a Shotgun or Werewolf Women of the SS, you’ll have to pick up a copy of Grindhouse for yourself. But I thought it might fun to spotlight some of the genuine 1970’s movie trailers that those were imitating, in all their sleazy, schlocky glory.

(WARNING: As these are trailers for exploitation flicks, some of their content may be Not Safe For Work.)

We’ll start off a film that has one of the most 1970’s titles ever: Black Mama, White Mama. Its trailer is a weird mix of competence and incompetence. On the one hand, it does a fantastic job filling itself with every ounce of excitement and titillation the movie has to offer. On the other hand, the narrator seems to think the title of the picture is Women in Chains, and no one bothered to correct them … or make sure the dialogue and narration weren’t talking over each other.

Next up, the Hammer Horror flick Vampire Circus. Hammer Film Productions made a name for itself in the 50’s and 60’s with gothic horror pictures like Dracula Has Risen from the Grave and Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed. And this trailer is trading on that reputation, putting the studio’s name front and center in a way you don’t normally see.

However, in the 70’s Hammer realized it needed to shake up its horror movies to keep with the times, and Vampire Circus is a fantastic example of that. Still in many ways a classic gothic horror piece about vampires menacing a vaguely-long-time-ago village. But to match the zeitgeist of the 70’s, it amps up the blood and nudity (which the trailer can’t really show), and adds a psychedelic visual style (which the trailer is able to show hints of) practically begging you to watch it under the influence of a controlled substance.

You’ve heard of The Cannonball Run? Well, five years before that movie came out, someone had already made a film inspired by the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash. That movie is Cannonball, written and directed by Paul Bartel, and starring David Carradine as a champion racer competing in an anything-goes car race across the United States. Both the movie and its trailer are great exemplars of 1970’s American culture, where driving faster than the speed limit was the ultimate sign of stick-it-to-the-man cool.

But that was actually Bartel & Carradine’s second film about an uber-destructive race across America. A year earlier, they made Death Race 2000, an even more over-the-top spectacle, mixed with sci-fi social satire. It’s set in a future where, instead of forcing people into death matches like Battle Royale or The Hunger Games, the government has drivers race across the country, earning points for every pedestrian they run over.

(I used to think it was ridiculous that so many people still went out on the streets when there was a death race going on, but then Covid-19 happened, and it turns out that behavior is shockingly realistic.)

Not sure I could do this lineup without having a Jaws ripoff in the mix. Enter: Piranha. And the trailer’s not shy about its if-you-liked-Jaws-you’ll-like-this pitch: “These are the maneaters who go beyond the bite of all other jaws. Sharks come alone – piranha come in thousands.”

If we couldn’t do this without a Jaws knockoff, we certainly can’t do it without a kung fu and/or blaxploitation flick. Luckily, TNT Jackson has us covered, with a trailer that is hilarious in it hypes itself up in such a very 70’s way. It describes TNT as “a one mama massacre squad”, saying “this hit lady’s charms will break both your arms” and “with that dynamite bod, she’s a jet black hit squad!”

And we close off this little exhibition with a film called Werewolves on Wheels. I’ll tell you upfront: you shouldn’t bother watching this movie – it’s actually kind of boring. But with that title, and this trailer promising a wild collision of biker gangs, satanic cults, and wolfmen, it’s hard for people of a certain disposition to resist.

Plus, you gotta love how the trailer touts the movie as “the most exciting and unusual horror motorcycle film yet made” and “the most eerie, the most chilling, the most terrifying motorcycle horror film ever made” … and then admits it’s “the first motorcycle horror film ever made”.